Has it really been over two months since writing last? Oh how time flies! It's also funny how your goals and desires seem to change so quickly!

After my last post, a sting of things happened in our lives and we decided to move up our date for selling our house. We began to make the necessary upgrades and fixes on the house in order to get it ready to sell.

We started with the easy things: fixtures and having our front porch railing powder coated. These were quick fixes and the railing was one we had someone come get and do for us.

When these were finished, we started on finishing the basement. Years ago we had added two more bedrooms down there but had never quite finished the cosmetic things like painting doors and moulding. In the time since, we had water get into the basement and have had to replace carpet and baseboards. We still haven't quite finished this yet, I need to paint the door frames and baseboards. :)

We took a little break from that and decided to start on the bathroom floors upstairs. We pulled up the linoleum only to find water had gotten under the linoleum and was causing huge problems in the sub flooring. We had to replace the top layer of sub flooring and found the bottom layer was not too bad, so we sealed it really good, put the new layer on, sealed it and then laid the linoleum tiles we got. I have become quite the handyman with our home, I filled the grout and sealed it and caulked the tub. The kids bathroom looks so good now!

We have done lots of painting and have gone thru six gallons of white paint in the bathrooms and a couple bedrooms and will probably go thru a couple more before we are finished!

We started pulling up the linoleum in the master bathroom to find a huge nightmare! Years ago, probably even before we moved in, there was a leak in the shower. We finally figured out what was causing it and fixed it, but apparently too late. We took off the top layer of the sub flooring only to find the bottom layer as well was just rotting and it's even rotting under the shower! Ugh, I had just finished grouting our shower, it looks so good! Now we may have to tear it apart, if the rotten board goes too far under the shower. I have been so upset and frustrated the last couple of days. In the meantime, I am getting all the painting done that we need to finish, so our bathroom may be the last thing we do. We are also working on replacing the flooring in the laundry room and half bath, but thankfully that is on concrete and it looks great, so no problems!

I have learned and was reminded yesterday, that patience is not something that we just have, it is something we are always striving for, so I will keep striving to have as much patience as possible and have faith that with God's help, we will make it through this trial and everything will work out how it is supposed to, and we will be happy!

Next I will tell you what I've learned through the last 10 years of home ownership and things we were never told but needed to know. Until then....